The second installment of this short series begins with a song that took the charts by storm 40 years ago. Jangly guitars, a great melody, and the whistling at the end of the song made this one of the best pop songs of the year.
For those who don't know, Gilbert O'Sullivan is an Irish singer/songwriter who had several hits in the early 70s. Among them is Claire, which begins with whistling. Some might say that it's light music, but I liked his voice even back then.
Finally, a one-hit wonder from 1967. Whistling Jack Smith was a singer and trumpeter from Liverpool who enjoyed brief success with his whistled song, but never achieved it again.
A broad review of notable publications without a contextual link.
1967 - Buffalo Springfield released their only chart success. For What It's Worth became an anthem of the opponents of the Vietnam war.
1977 - Boz Scaggs is an musician which has never been mentioned in this blog before. He is well known in America but he was never the big thing with his honest rhythm & blues. His album Silk Degrees reached the top ten at the time, was pleasant to listen to and very similar to the sound of Graham Parker.
1986 - Simply one of the best pop songs from this year and one that made The Bangles everybody's darlings.
1978 - American Girl was the last song on Tom Petty's debut album and shows his ability to write catchy songs that have lost none of their class even after decades.
1965 - Martha Reeves & the Vandellas are one example, why you should dive into 60's soul from time to time.
1982 - ABC released their their debut album The Lexicon Of Love. One that you can either hate or love, because their completely arranged songs are very close to kitsch. But there are some damn good songs on the album.
1956 - Hard to believe that this song by Gene Vincent and his Blue Caps is almost 70 years old. For me is this song more rock and roll than from other artists of this era.
1981 - The Jam. Just another great song from them.
Almost ten years ago I became on a little bit attentive to another indie-pop band from Los Angeles. I liked their combination of garage and surfpop because it was just music that made fun. Now I got the news that Best Coast are going to release a new album with new songs. The songs I listened to were in the tradition of 80's Californian rock and pop. You can hear the influences of The GoGo's, Bangles and Joan Jett in many of their songs. It is definitely not the next big thing but Bethany Cosentino and Bobb Bruno are still able to make songs that are above the average of this genre. Not the worst way to start into Sunday.
